Daniel J. Morgan, Entrepreneur; hosted kid's TV show in '60's

Rochester, NY Democrat & Chronicle
8 October 2006
Greg Livadas, Staff writer

Daniel J. Morgan, an entrepreneur who hosted a popular local children's television program in the 1960s, died Sept. 12 [2006] in Rochester [NY] after suffering a heart attack.

Mr. Morgan, whose projects included Florida real estate development and the creation and marketing of a lilac-scented perfume, was born in Rochester and graduated from Charlotte High School and was part of the pioneer class of St. John Fisher College.

After college, he began a career in advertising, public relations and broadcasting.

His face and voice were used in countless commercials, many of them national, for companies including Eastman Kodak, Xerox and Bausch and Lomb, said his son, Charles Morgan of Brighton.

Mr. Morgan joined WOKR-TV (now WHAM-TV) shortly after the station signed on in 1962, and his children's show, The Funny Company, ran until 1968, said Jerry Carr, who worked with Mr. Morgan then.

"He was a great friend, a very good announcer and very religious," Carr said. "We were constantly playing tricks on each other."

WHAM-TV anchor Don Alhart, who met Mr. Morgan in 1967 when Alhart joined Channel 13, said Mr. Morgan "was always the consummate professional. Sometimes you'd have to go into a booth a half-hour early just to say 'WOKR Channel 13 Rochester,' and he would always approach those things very seriously. He was always smooth and polished and he wanted to do it properly. It's kind of what an early broadcast announcer was all about."

Eventually, Mr. Morgan moved to New York, where he continued work in advertising and became the announcer for Bishop Fulton J. Sheen's television show. He also served as national vice president of Pop Warner football.

In 1973, Mr. Morgan helped form Boca Pointe Country Club in Boca Raton, where he had a winter home.

Carr, now living in Florida, talked with Mr. Morgan regularly and was kept informed of his many projects.

Carr said Mr. Morgan once obtained the recipe for the original Italian Ice from his friend, Bishop Sheen, and franchised a line of hurdy-gurdies all over the country.

"He was the entrepreneur extraordinaire," Carr said. "Whenever he'd come up with an idea, he'd run it by me. I had a call from him two days before he died, he said he had a program idea that was going to blow me away."

His family said that was typical.

"He loved his work and he loved his family and he never wanted to retire," his son said. "He was a visionary and he acted upon his visions."

Besides his son Charles, Mr. Morgan is survived by his wife of 44 years, Judy; a daughter, Melanie Kunigan of Rochester; another son, Ryan Morgan of Rochester; four grandchildren and many friends.

His funeral was held at Holy Cross Church, with burial at Holy Sepulchre Cemetery.

Donations in his memory may be made to the Holy Cross Playground Fund, 4492 Lake Ave., Rochester, N.Y. 14612.



Bishop Sheen`s TV Series Now On Cable

Sun Sentinel, Fort Lauderdale, FL, A Tribune Newspaper website
10 November 1990
By Carol Brzozowski, Staff Writer

Bishop Fulton Sheen, the popular and charismatic Roman Catholic bishop who died 11 years ago, is making a comeback these days -- on television.

Some 1,700 cable affiliates of the Vision Interfaith Satellite Network are now broadcasting reruns of Sheen's Life Is Worth Living, the series that was enormously popular on network televisionduring the 1950s and '60s.

Boca Raton entreprenuer and financier Dan Morgan, who was Sheen's announcer, has spent two years marketing the bishop's material. He has met resistance from young executives unfamiliar with the Emmy award-winning bishop. But Morgan, chairman of Sheen Productions, believes his efforts have finally gained some momentum.

"People now want to be part of something that's good," he says. "Even Billy Graham called him the greatest communicator of the century. His talks were really inspirational. He was different than today`s evangelists because he realy inspired Americans to think."

During Sheen's heyday, his talks were carried over 123 ABC affiliates and 300 radio stations. He reached an estimated 30 million people a week through his broadcasts and received up to 30,000 letters a week.

Sheen began his broadcasting ministry in 1930, in the days before myriad ministers cried on camera and begged for money. He attracted an interdenominational following with his humor-laden, common-sense approach.

Wearing vestments on camera, however, he did not attempt to veil his Catholicism. And it was understood that the Vatican`s Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith was the beneficiary of his monetary success. Today, at the end of the programs, donations are requested for the Bishop Fulton J. Sheen Archives at St. Bernard`s Institute on the campus of Colgate Rochester Divinity School.

Some 300 shows have been prepared for broadcast. At a cost of more than $1 million, Morgan and his associates have taken Sheen`s original tapes, which are more than 40 years old, and colorized one-third of them. Others will remain in the original black and white.

During a nine-week trial in early 1988, some of the Sheen tapes were run on WPTV-Ch. 5 in West Palm Beach. The reruns came in second in the station's ratings for its morning time period, beaten only by Wheel of Fortune.

"It did very well for us," says station manager Bill Brooks. "Sheen is sort of a timeless individual. (His tapes) are a nice jewel to put in any station`s crown."

Brooks says plans are in the works to broadcast Sheen tapes at Christmas and Easter.

In the meantime, Sheen`s programs may be viewed on the Jones Cable system on Channel 43 at 3 p.m. Sunday, 9:30 a.m. Monday, 5 a.m. Wednesday, and 6:30 p.m. Friday.

The Vatican has requested the tapes. Pope John Paul II asked for two copies for a personal collection, Morgan says.

Besides the TV reruns, now being negotiated for international release, Morgan and his associates are working on starting a Fulton Sheen Foundation. Based on a similar organization at Harvard University that trains politicians in the use of mass media, the Sheen Foundation would provide free training to priests, ministers and rabbis in giving better sermons. Universities in several states are being considered as program sites.


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